Monday, November 19, 2012

Lunar Consolation

You will remember how piqued I was to learn that I missed being in the First Moon Flights Club. In a moon-envy-induced frenzy I began collecting moony articles circa 1969 in all the newspapers we had available online. A Los Angeles Times article* tipped me off to another moon souvenir worth having! It seems that Trans International Airlines also capitalized on the moon-madness with a travel guide: Charters to the Moon.
"This booklet was prepared especially for the travel agent as a guide to use in planning, for his clients, future-out-of-this-world charter travel. As the leading air charter carrier, TIA is proud to help travel agents to prepare for the future, just as we work together in the present."

A Google search located one of these brochures for sale. For $30 I purchased my own moon souvenir!

More elaborate and goofier than the First Moon Flights Club card, this brochure lays out in detail the delights of lunar vacations."Enjoy your stay on the Moon, one of the most relaxing resorts in the Universe. Its unique attributes include: smog-free atmosphere, no rain or snow, no breath of wind, and profound silence. Your hotel, the Luna, is located in the Sea of Showers--which is, of course, not a sea (nor does the moon have showers)..." "After your restful 63 1/2-hour trip by TIA '949' Super Spacecraft (you travel at speeds up to 36,000 miles per hour--six times the speed of the fastest bullet!), and after relaxation in your Luna luxery resort hotel, remember--Budget Rent-A-Mooncar serves all the Moon, with the latest model surface vehicles. Offices: Copernicus Crater." "For a unique experience, try a 'Moonhike.' The supporting strength of the lunar surface is much greater than previously suspected." It goes on like that. See large scans of the pages here for more excitement!

Now I need to find some way of preserving and displaying both sides of this brochure.

*Hulse, Jerry You May Be Man on the Moon, LA Times, June 15, 1969, pgH6.
Also mentioned in Moon Trip, Schenectady Gazette, June 16, 1969, p. 13. Found in the Google News Archive.

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About Me

I grew up in Los Alamos, NM; I went to college in Texas; I moved to Cambridge, MA in 1978.
I write about my passions: 50s science fiction, historical costume, Jungian psychology, and my strange adventures.